Well, here it is. Chapter 8. I must be on a roll this week. Keep the reviews comin'. I'm loving the attention. ;p
Me: I don't own any Percy Jackson and the Olympians stuff. Just the peoples that I made up and the plot… Blah, blah, blah…
Poseidon: I seem to have a very unimportant role in this story. I demand a change!
Me: We are America! And we don't like change! Grrrr!
Poseidon: wtf?
Me: I win! XD
Chapter 8: I should go on Dr. Freaking Phil
When the big guy said watched at all times, he literally meant watched at ALL times. There were like three crows following us the entire way back to camp. I had to pee really bad, so we stopped at Subway (Or as I like to call it; Zombies -Eat Flesh) for some lunch, and I swear there were some funky noises in the stall next to me. I got stage fright and finally decided I wouldn't be able to go, so I just washed my hands and went to get a sub.
Later, when we finally got back to camp, everyone was training really hard. It looked suspicious until I saw Artemis yelling at some kids from Ares cabin who had shot other campers in the butt. Percy was on the field with several other cabin groups, teaching them hand-to-hand combat and sword fighting. When Artemis started walking over to Percy, his face visibly paled. He sighed with relief when she just nodded and moved on to where a few Aphrodite girls were sitting, fixing their hair. When Artemis started talking to them, they all started pointing fingers at each other and soon scrambled away to join their other siblings in the archery range. I secretly winced in pain for the poor kids.
"Artemis is really angry," I turned to see that Percy Jackson had made the observation.
"What happened in Olympus?" inquired his girlfriend, Annabeth.
"She almost got me killed, that's what," I huffed.
"Magdalena!" I winced to hear my full name being used. I looked over to who said it. Of course, it was none other than my dear mother, calling me to train with her, I assumed. I walked over to her, and she started barking out orders. "Thalia! Hayley! Elizabeth!" Immediately three girls popped up in front of us. "Take her into the forest and test her hunting skills," she commanded.
"Umm, I hate to break it to you, but I don't have any," I said, a little sheepishly. That's pretty embarrassing, being daughter of THE hunting goddess and I probably couldn't even tie a double knot. The look she gave me reinforced my belief that she actually wanted me to die back at Olympus, but I digress. She just shooed us off and continued on to degrade other campers.
"Sorry about that," winced Thalia. She gave ma a reassuring smile and led the four of us to a secluded area of the woods. " Now, Hayley and Liz are going to run off into the woods and you are going to have to track them, and take them out with an arrow."
"What? How do you expect me to do that? In case you missed, I don't have any clue what to do out here!" I complained.
"I know, but I'm just following Lady Artemis' orders. Since there is really no precedent for the abilities a child of Artemis should have, this is kind of like a test. Once we know what you're capable of, we can start the real training," she nodded to herself, thinking she had a great speech. Then she looked at me, "You have thirty minutes to track down Liz and shoot her at least once. And don't worry about hurting her. Our armor is too strong to be punctured by arrows. I'll be close, so call out if you get hurt." She turned to walk away.
"Wait! How am I supposed to know which tracks were made by Liz? Heck, there are hardly any tracks at all!"
"Instincts?" she said, before disappearing from sight. I took deep breath and counted to ten before I ran off in the direction that the footprints went in.
Everything went well for the first couple minutes, but soon, the prints went in two different directions. Terrific, I was stuck in the middle of the woods, with no clue where to go. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, when it hit me. I could smell a few different scents if I concentrated really hard. The scent to the right was really fresh, so I decided to go that way, but a few feet in, I saw a piece of armor hanging in a tree. I remembered seeing this on a TV show once. The people rubbed their scent on nearby trees and left extra pieces of clothing to make the animals think they had gone in that direction. Feeling a rush of adrenaline, I retraced my steps and went to the left side. I followed scents and footprints, and soon came to a small clearing with a pond in the middle. I looked everywhere, but the footprints had stopped, and the scent had just disappeared. I saw movement to my right, and almost flew after the person, when I saw that the person was too tall. That must have been Hayley. I didn't realize I remembered so much about them until now. My brain has subconsciously picked up their images and processed them, or something like that. Being the daughter of Artemis was way cooler than I imagined. I sent a quick, silent message of thanks to my father, for seducing Artemis. I certainly wasn't going to thank Artemis, for fear of her shooting me to death or a worse fate.
When I saw Liz and her smallness crawling behind a tree, my supercharged brain calculated all the angles and I jumped at just the right one so that I landed on top of Liz. In my surprise over my victory, Liz shook me off and started running in confusing patterns, to throw me off. It almost worked, but I scooted around the tree before I ran head first into it. I was breathing way too fast and almost fainted when I saw my chance to take her down. It all happened in slow motion. I whipped around my bow and pulled out an arrow. I sent a silent prayer to the use of my mom's abilities and let the arrow fly. It went right into her side armor and she fell to the ground. I thought I accidentally killed her, giving my mom another reason to want me dead, but she got up and stretched and just pulled the arrow right out of her side.
"Good job," she praised, eyes wide. "Another inch and that arrow would've taken out my stomach."
I cringed, "Sorry."
"Don't be," a voice said from behind us. Should've known, I thought as I turned around and saw Artemis and Thalia nodding approvingly. One might even go as far as to say she looked proud of me, but the moment quickly passed, and I wasn't about to ask for a gold star. Of course, I doubted she had anything gold. Just silver. I shut myself up.
"Forgive my most extreme test," said Artemis, with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes. "I just had to make sure you were going to be able to protect yourself if the need comes when we leave."
"We?" I questioned. "I thought I was supposed to stay and train at Camp Half-Blood."
"Normally, yes, but seeing how Zeus will kill you if I'm not watching, I think it's best if you come with me," she replied. I'm sure I was gaping with my mouth wide open. "Go back to camp, girls. Thank you for your help today." Thalia, Liz, and Hayley nodded and sprinted off to camp. Artemis turned back to me, "I suppose you are upset, but it is the only way to keep you alive."
"If you don't want this either, then why don't you just shoot me yourself?" I questioned haughtily.
Her eyes narrowed, "What makes you think I would shoot you now when I let you live all those millennia ago?"
"What makes you think I know the answer to that question?" I shot back. She just shook her head and turned to walk to camp. I swallowed hard and asked, to fill my curiosity, "If you had a chance… to do it all over again, would you still have broken your vows with my father?" My voice came out in barely a whisper.
She turned to me, and I saw all the pain she hides from back then. I was shocked. I really didn't think she had strong emotions about anything. She shook her head, "I couldn't answer that now. Honestly, it was so long ago and the time went by so quickly, I barely remember it now." She tried to walk away again, but I wasn't satisfied.
"If there was a way to bring him back, would you want that? If you loved him, why haven't you tried? You could be happy again," I really needed something from her.
She tilted her head, studying me, "Your eyes aren't the only thing you got from him. Your stubbornness rivals his." She gave me a small painful smile. "And I have tried. But not everything is possible. His constellation keeps him as alive as I will get," she stared at the sky. "I'm not unhappy right now, perhaps just a little weary. I have lived forever, you know. Life becomes meaningless unless you live it. I try, I really do, but I don't think I would be able to afford the price of bringing him back. And for that I apologize, not only to him, but to you as well." I was stunned by this serious speech (AN: me even more so, seeing as I've never written anything this deep in my life without including a series of inappropriate jokes). She shook her head and motioned for me to follow her back to camp.
Now, I found something to do. I would find away to get my father back, even if it killed me.
Oookayyy! I almost put myself to sleep there. So this is like a big turning point for our little girl. She's growing up so fast. :'( *Sniffle sniffle* All this seriousness is making me uncomfortable, so I feel I must crack a joke.
What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta! … get it? you know, like imposter? Forget it. *crawls back in hole*
Does anybody even read my little blurbs? Or am I just preaching to the choir here?
Anyways, maybe I'll put up another chapter tomorrow, but only if I can get some more reviews.
Happy lunch-time everybody. :
